


Not the end

by Aislinn01



Category: Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Oneshot, Post-Canon, Varian went to prison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 23:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13646454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aislinn01/pseuds/Aislinn01





	Not the end

.

The cold had been the first thing he had noticed when he was brought down here. It had crept into the boy’s bones so slowly so steadily that he did not notice it at first. The boy rubbed his hands together in a fruitless attempt to get his blood flowing again and was disturbed by the shackles around his wrists.

They did not belong there. They were wrong. The weight seemed to pull his arms down, making every movement of his arms heavier. And the most depressing thing was that they sent an empty echo of rattling chains through the cell at every tiny move the boy made.

 

They had to chain him up they said. He was very dangerous they said. He tried to kill the queen they said. It did not matter what they said. It was too late. _He_ was too late. Too late to save his father, too late to have his revenge and definitely too late to return to the blissfull life he had lived once.

The boy remembered how the villagers called him strange and how they scoffed at his supposed wizardy. Things had not been entirely blissful but he brushed that thought off. Despite all the odd looks and the scornful comments he had been happy once.

 

His pet raccoon crawled on his lap to comfort him. He managed a brokenhearted smile. The raccoon would not betray him like everyone else did. Never. Rudiger would be there for him, but even the animal was afraid of him sometimes. The second day after he had been locked up he could not take it anymore. He had cried, screamed and trashed. Had tugged his chains until the flesh of his wrists split open and bled.

That evening (he believed is was an evening, but his cell was underground and he lost track of time) Rudiger had crept into the furthest corner of the cell, where his chains would not let him.

 

Now his wounds were healed for the most part, but they still made him feel as if his skin was burning when he tugged the shackles. Rudiger started snoring and the boy laid down on his back, slowly stroking the raccoon that was snuggled up in his lap. He had heard the guards whisper about him. The fourteen year old that was one of the most dangerous threats to the kingdom in years. The nut-job that created automatons to kill people with for fun. The boy that had to be chained up because he was just that dangerous.

The boy traced the chains with his fingers. Beneath the metal his skin was raw. Eventually they would leave uncomfortable scars. It was just metal, he told himself as he touched the rough iron. If he had his lab here he could easily make a chemical compound to burn through them.

 

A prisoner from the first floor had laughed at him when the guards first brought him in. “What didya do kid? Steal a lollipop from Monty?” But then the prisoner’s eyes had noticed the heavy chains hanging from his wrists and ankles and he had been wise enough to shut up.

By the time the guards and the boy had made their way to the stairs, all the prisoners from the first floor had turned their heads to see a little kid be dragged to the lower levels of the dungeons. The inmates on the second floor were even more surprised to see a fourteen year old be sent to the third and lowest floor.

 

The raccoon was draped around his shoulders like a shawl when the guards arrived to take him upstairs. Two stood by the door of the cell with their halberds ready while two others unlocked his shackles and bound his wrists behind his back. The prisoners from the second and first floor always stared at him when he walked by but the boy did not care.

He neither cared for the medic that he was made to see twice a week. The medic asked questions, so many questions. About his dad, Rapunzel, the queen and his father. The boy suspected that he was one of the medics that took care of mental injuries instead of physical ones.

The time after his hysteric breakdown, when his wrists were still bleeding he asked the medic to sew up the wounds but the medic could not. “You have been here for two weeks but you haven’t spoken to me.” The medic sighed. “Keeping things quiet is not the way to handle problems. Problems become lighter when you share them, you know?” The boy could hear the uncertainty in the medic’s voice and said nothing. It was not like he would entrust this complete stranger with his life’s concerns.

When he was returned to his cell and chained up properly, he was once again left alone with his thoughts. Two weeks the medic had said. It felt a lot longer. Rudiger quickly made fourteen scratches in the wall. One for every year of his life. This time the raccoon would keep track of time.

The boy laid on his bed and curled up into a ball. He felt like crying. “I’m sorry dad...” he whispered. The raccoon perked up and stroked his face.

It was silent for a minute, or maybe it was an hour, before the boy moved again. ‘This is not the end’ he thought. He still wanted his revenge and once he got out of this prison he would have it. Corona would pay for every waking minute he had spent in this stinking cell. The boy let the anger sink into his heart like the cold surrounding him.

 

He was the boy the guards whispered about. The boy that almost killed the queen, threatened the princess and built automatons. He was it all and he would not try to hide it. He was filled with desperation and determination. He was Varian and he would be back.

No. This was not the end.


End file.
